Today’ s picture shows you a little cut out of a larger picture. The larger picture was taken a few years ago (think 20 years) when traveling in Umbria, Italy. Back then I used to take a lot of black and white pictures with my SLR (single lense reflex) camera. Part of the larger picture you see on my facebook profile foto, provided facebook is up and running again. The whole picture is on my scanner right now.

I am not the guy who looks back that often, as I have much too many plans for the next days and months. What I like about this particular picture and the way it was taken is: Back then you had to wait. You took a photo and then you waited for weeks eventually, to see how it turned out. Now, it is seconds only. I love digital photography, but looking at some analog pictures I see that the waiting period and the complications of analog photography come with a bonus.

In sense, for the time being, creating perfumes is very an analog business still. It involves a lot of waiting, for minutes or hours until a nose has calmed down after mixing, for days or weeks until the mixture has matured, for years until you have thought enough about things. I am sure that in large industry this has changed already. When I started working on the soap that you can get in the kickstarter campaign for Only Child (click here to go and get it by pledging) I remembered what Guy Robert said in his book “Les Sens du Parfum”, a book recommended to anybody who wants to start making perfumes, that the real big numbers you make in the fragrance industry not by creating perfumes but by creating scents for soaps and cleaner et al.

We tend to forget this when talking perfumes and about the art of perfumery.

But, although soaps et al. are the big business: I would like to use this post to underline that I do not really plan to build a soap business. Rest assured. It might a soap or two one day, here or there, and you might see soaps for special occasions from time to time. I think my soaps are not made for big business anyhow. They involve a lot of hand work, and somewhat precious raw materials, the loretta soap offered in the kickstarter campaign features among other ingredients rose absolute and jasmine absolute.  And – not really surprising- I did a test without these naturals: The result is not the same.

Brian Pera will talk a bit more on his blog about the soap, I guess. And a few other goodies. Thus, stay tuned there. Thank you!

Today’s picture shows you the Tableau de Parfums purse spray that I will soon fill with DARK PASSAGE, the super limited edition that is only available in March through the Kickstarter campaign for ONLY CHILD. Afterwards , when the financing and support campaign for Brian Pera’s latest film project comes to an end, then the perfume will be gone. ONLY CHILD is the next Evelyn Avenue full feature film project. I was lucky enough to read the script and love it. It is mysterious, noir and continues there where the Loretta story ended in Woman’s Picture.

You can get the fragrance here, on Kickstarter. Just check out the various pledges and follow the process through. The mechanics behind it is all done by Amazon.com. Thus, it is super safe and easy. Click here to get to the campaign page.

And yes, besides DARK PASSAGE, you find other treats  there, too. Some of them are fragrant. Like the Loretta soap (more on this tomorrow). Some of them are film and other arts related. And more is to come. Thus, you might from time to time visit again, either Kickstarter, or follow the story developing on Evelyn Avenue’s blog. And of course Facebook, and twitter.

So… the fragrance Dark Passage SNAPSHOT is here to stay for a couple of days only and then it will be gone. And -like it or not- the same is true for most fragrances that see the world today. They are gone tomorrow. Tomorrow might be a few months or years.  But most of them are gone within a year. For me this first SNAPSHOT fragrance comes as a relief. Finally, I can do a fragrance that does not need to go through any distribution and sales machinery and EU registration and other investments. It is just here. If you are interested in it: Get it.

I think I will not even answer mails about it when March and Dark Passage is gone.

It is refreshing: Think about it for a couple of months, create it during a couple of months, offer it for a month, and then forget it and make room for new creations and ideas. An artist’s dream come true.

Today, I am hopping around from here to there and back again. Like a bunny in spring, I guess. And actually, it feels very much like spring today.

This, and the good feeling that comes with the fact that there is now enough juice for 6500 bottles stored in the cellars of tauerville. Those of you who are on facebook can see the 13 12 liter bottles there in my mobile uploads before the aluminum bottles go and hide again in the dark . And yet, there is more fragrance to be made in the coming weeks:
Loretta, the next fragrance in the Tableau de Parfums(R) line will see the world in a few weeks, and will be diluted after a month maturation. Then I need to mix more ZETA, a linden blossom theme. And one or two others.

Thus, it feels like spring today and we are ready to jump into it.

Enjoy!

this post is about to seduce you and introduce you to the wonders of bars and codes.  No, I am not talking about codes that act like tags when it comes to perfumes. Like white musk=”inoffensive little thing  for the office”, or spices=”for men without really being spicy” or other funny notes that actually do not exist except in the mind of some PR guys.  On the side: If you feel like writing the ultimate perfume PR, make sure to visit Now Smell This and enter your contribution to the “PRIX EAU FAUX 2012″. I like this competition a lot.

No, I am talking serious codes. Bar codes. I got mine since a while, but never used them. Or better said: I am registered with GS1 in Switzerland and got my Tauer bar code with a set of 1000 numbers. Thus, there is still some room for new products. The bar code is a 13 digit EAN-13 code. The code for the air du désert marocain, 50 ml , edt you see in today’s picture. Bar codes come in handy for many things. And some retailer need them and want them. Like Jovoy in Paris, where you will soon find my brand, and where I will travel a couple of times this year. Which is nice (both) and for sure worth a few more posts in the future. Right now, I do not print the code directly onto the packaging labels, but as I am completely changing everything, or rather optimizing a few packaging issues within the next 12 months, you will see the bar codes on new labels in about a year from now. For the time being, I have individual labels printed. I got all the bar code pictures yesterday, and made all sticker bar code pictures ready.

And had the computer crash in regular  intervals. Time to get a new one, I fear. Or rather hope.  I want a Mac.

Ah, and yes, this post is about more bars. Soap bars. A much more sensual thing that bar code.  I was fiddling for quite a while on a fragrance for a special, very special soap bar. In the mean time, the fragrance mixture is a perfume by itself. Not that I will start selling soap bars. No way. But I wanted a scented soap bar that is a little bit beyond the ordinary. For a special occasion. I think I got the formula right and stable now. The soap bar with the fragrance was stored for a while, and is in use since a few days in the house of tauer. I cannot pass by the bathroom without smelling. Fingers crossed that all goes like we plan it and that the soap bars will see the world beyond my bath room.

Notes are: Rose, Jasmine, Tuberose.

Dominik Dachs comes back again: When I was a boy, I spent hours and hours watching the adventures of Dominik Dachs and his friends, including Niki Tiki, following them when they traveled their little world. To get an idea (in Swiss German) of how lovely these characters are: Click here for the video on the Swiss TV website. Enjoy!

When I read the news today about Dominik Dachs coming back, I was instantly transported back to days where I was dreaming of getting out into the world and living an adventurous life. And guess what: Actually, in a sense, this boy dream has come pretty true. Not only that I was and am blessed to see parts of the world. I am also living quite an adventurous life. Or, like the W.-factor agreed the other day: I am actually living the life of an artist. Financially somewhat special, but with exciting projects and ideas everywhere. And happy me: I am not doing these projects myself. Like Dominik Dachs I have my friends and partners living these adventures with me, and the other way round.

In the coming days,  another adventure starts. Maybe I am not Dominik Dachs there, but more Niki Tiki, supporting Dominik. It does not matter. I feel it is going to be a fun adventure. I will talk more about Dark Passage, the fragrance. We will talk about a soap that I find utterly interesting, featuring interesting notes, among others Tuberose, and film projects and and and.

These adventures need some preparations. Thus, I get ready and need to pack my adventure bags. See you very, very soon again! Please stay tuned. Thank you.

Patchouli coeur which means”heart of Patchouli” is basically a patchouli that is rich in patchoulol. I am using a quality that is 66% patchoulol. I use it together with “standard” patchouli in the dark fragrance that I described in the past few days. Patchoulol is also called Patchouli Camphor as the heart of patchouli  is a very camperous, in a sense it is actually close to incense, with its campherous terpene like aspects.  Maybe this is part of the fascination of patchouli. There is a woody dark side and an airy, campherous side and the two complement each other. It is like a constant discourse between these two sides.

Patchouli coeur is even a bit more on the light, airy, musky side. Yes, there is a musky aspect that is stronger and underlined in Patchouli Coeur. I got mine from Ventos, but the description on Robertet‘s internet site is wonderful. It is in French and thus even more mysterious: “Odeur : le cœur de patchouli présente un aspect olfactif très propre, ambré, terreux, patchoulol, oriental.”  Thus, it smells clean, of ambergris, earth, patchoulol, and oriental.

I mentioned it before : I use a lot of cocoa in this dark fragrance. The combo Patchouli-cocoa is a great combination.  Usually the cocoa is rendered into a gourmand scent. I like my cocoa dirty. The Patchoulol helps me to balance this dark side.  The dark woody “heavy” cacao and an airy musky light patchouli talk to each other and complement each other.

Next week, when all goes well, I will close this little series on this upcoming scent. The fragrance runs under the name Dark Passage, and I will present it in a specific context in a few days.

But now, it is time to stop here. We got a delivery coming, 5000 pentagonal boxes, and although they are empty and it is just packed air, carrying them around takes a while.

Enjoy your weekend!

OK. Birch tar. That’s an easy one. If you wish to find out how birch tar smells: Hit the next birch tree, cut it, light a fire, let the fire go out, smell the smoke and you get the idea. Of course, what I used has been rectified a few times to get rid of toxic stuff. Alternatively, you might want to smell Lonestar Memories, my third fragrance, where I sort of went to the limit of what you do with birchtar in perfumery. You may also visit Knize Ten, the original, one of the best leather scents there is and discover birch tar there, packed nicely into a chord of citrus and a yummie rose and geranium and lots of woods, just to name one of my favorite leather scents.

Actually, birch tar is not an easy one to use. It is smoky, burnt wood like, leathery, somewhat dirty, phenolic, not really pleasant when smelled in high concentrations. A little drop changes everything in a mixture. You find this drop in the air du désert marocain, too. In the scent that I am talking about about since Monday I dosed the birch tar a bit higher than in air du désert marocain. The leathery, smoky line is more present but much less than in Lonestar Memories. It basically contrasts any gourmand aspect of cocoa.  I wanted to add a leathery burnt dry wood note to the cocoa and bring out the animalic underlining story within the scent’s head and heart note.

Today’s picture shows you three aluminum bottles, from left to right the already discussed beeswax, a little aluminum tube with Bourbon vetiver and birch tar. Vetiver and birch tar go wonderful together and work sort of hand in hand. Actually, vetiver is much more smoky and dirty leathery tobacco than you would expect. Most vetiver fragrances that we see these days on the perfumery shelves are cleaned to a point where the soul of vetiver is actually gone. However, I do not need a lot of vetiver here, just a hint to fix things, add volume and a bit earth.

You also see the formula, printed from excel (and gloves, as I always mix with gloves on). The right side column of the excel is actually empty and there I fill in the lot numbers of each ingredient. Later, I  transfer the numbers into the Excel file again.  Each raw material that I use comes with a certificate of analysis and with a specific batch number. The mixture that I make will also get a batch /lot number. Thus, I can basically trace back for every lot of every fragrance that I ever made which ingredients of what batch with what specifications I actually used.  Right now, I have three large folders filled up with certificates.

One fine day, 10 years after production, I am allowed to destroy the certificates. They will burn and hopefully smell smoky and dirty.

There is a thing with extracts of cocoa that makes them sometimes difficult to use in perfumes. They are mostly dark. But there are qualities that are different. I would like to continue exploring a fragrance that I created a while ago and that sits in the fridge waiting to be put into some flacons, and to be shipped in a while; in the framework of a special set of activities.  More details will unfold in the coming days. Today, let us just focus on another ingredient: natural cocoa.

Actually, this scent has a lot of it in it.

I got a quality that is colorless. I got it from Ventos. It is a creamy, quite viscous liquid at 20C and although it lost its dark color, it did not loose its soul. It is bitter sweet, with this unique cacao vibe. Again, there is something mysterious in this ingredient, a “noir” quality. Thus, do not get me wrong: The cocoa extract maybe colorless, but the fragrance where I put it in is a dark scent. Cocoa is in its heart, central and present, adding a roasted heart of bitterness with hints of tobacco: In my nose, there is a line of tobacco in cocoa. Expensive cigar tobacco. Add this to the fine line of birchtar and you get a leathery smoky line that reaches out from the head into the heart.

And then, of course, cocoa is quite gourmand. Here, again no mistakes: I did not want the scent to enter into yummie territory. But its natural sweetness softens harsher components, airy woody rooty ingredients that we will discuss in the coming days.

Today’s picture with its newspaper aesthetics  brings us one step closer to the inspiration and base of this fragrance: dark films of the past.

sweet tobacco, honey, flowery, powdery that’s what it says how beeswax absolute smells. I would add “dark”, animalic and musky. It is a waxy, hard material at room temperature and you have to melt it in a water bath (gently) in order to be able to pour it. That’s what the bottle label you see in today’s picture looks a bit worn. You can get it for instance from Biolandes. I got mine from Essencia, 100 gr, with certificate of analysis, confirming that except for 0.01% Benzyl alcohol it does not contain any components that need to be declared in accordance with the EU 76/768/EWG, attachement III/1 (allergens) regulations. Thus, it is a very safe to use product.

But not easy to use. First it is rather strongly colored, reddish almost. Then it needs careful dosage, I  think, as the tobacco honey animalic note becomes very easily overpowering. I would say it is somewhere in the middle between a heart and a head note. Some of the sweetness may even expand into the fragrance body. In a sense, I think, it should be used like an animalic extract, a modifier in a sense, in low dosage, adding a musky sweetness.

I have not used it in any fragrance so far. But I used it recently, in a context that I would describe as “noir”, animalic, leathery, head notes related, and if you look closely at today’s picture you can see that the 100 ml beeswax bottle is part of a larger picture. I cropped the larger part of this picture that I took when I mixed this somewhat dark fragrance. I mixed enough for a few hundred purse spray size bottles. I am doing something quite special with it.  I will continue talking about it soon: Stay tuned. Thank you.

OK. Now it is sort of official. You find tauer from now on in the MIN Apothecary in New York. Here is the link if you want to visit virtually. And if you want to visit physically: It is quite easy to find. Just follow your nose, in NY and on Crosby street (#117) you might discover cowboys around the campfire, you might smell some desert air mixed with the perfume of spices and freshly baked cookies, or you might find yourself in a raspberry field with roses. And you will discover that Min is actually a very nice and comfortable place to be.

And if you visit March 17, early in the evening, you might see a perfumer guy in jeans and white shirt. I am looking very much to it. And thank the team at Min already now for the cocktails. Everyone is invited.

Don’t miss.

And now: Back to work… mixing, in order to make sure that we have something to smell in New York.